The Hill School

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This article is about the boarding school in Pennsylvania. For the private school in Middleburg, Virginia, see the Hill School (Virginia).
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The Hill School
The Hill School.png
Whatsoever things are true.
Location
Pottstown, PA, USA
Information
Type Co-ed, Private, Boarding
Religious affiliation(s) None
Established 1851
Headmaster Zachary G. Lehman
Faculty 68, 70% hold or are working toward advanced degrees
Enrollment 512[1]
Average class size 12
Student to teacher ratio 7:1
Campus 300 acres (1.21 square km)
Color(s) Confederate Gray, Union Blue
Athletics 29 Interscholastic
The Hill School - Athletics
Mascot Ram
Website www.thehill.org

The Hill School is a preparatory boarding school for boys and girls located in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about 35 miles northwest of Philadelphia. The Hill School prepares students from across the world for success in college, careers, and life. Founded in 1851, The Hill School is a purposefully small and close learning community— a place where its academic excellence is based upon a challenging liberal arts curriculum; a faculty of highly qualified, dedicated teachers; a noteworthy breadth of advanced and honors course offerings; and a structured atmosphere that blends high expectations with meaningful support.[2]

The Hill is part of an organization known as the Ten Schools Admissions Organization. This organization was founded more than forty years ago on the basis of a number of common goals and traditions. Member schools include The Hill, Choate Rosemary Hall, Deerfield Academy, The Lawrenceville School, The Taft School, The Hotchkiss School, St. Paul's School, Loomis Chaffee, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Phillips Academy Andover.

In 2011, The Hill's endowment was approximately $120.3 million.[3]

Contents

History[edit]

The Hill School was founded in 1851 by the Rev. Matthew Meigs as the Family Boarding School for Boys and Young Men. The School opened on May 1, 1851, enrolling 25 boys for the first year. The Family Boarding School was the first of its kind in America. According to John Chancellor’s The History of The Hill, “He [Meigs] wanted to stress that he was not founding still another academy, but a type of school quite new and rare in America. There is a tendency to think that the boys’ boarding school as we know it existed as long as there have been private schools. It has not. Most of the 12 to 15 schools generally considered the “core” group were established in the last half of the nineteenth century…Of this whole group of schools, The Hill was the first to be founded as a family boarding school."[4]

Five Tenets[edit]

  • Community

The Hill School is an exceptionally close learning community, a place where faculty and students treat each other as family – where teachers know and care for their students as individuals and students form lifelong friendships. Purposefully smaller than most peer schools, The Hill originally was known as "The Family Boarding School," and today's diverse students, parents, alumni, and visitors continue to cite Hill's definitive feeling of family.

  • Academic Excellence

The Hill School’s reputation for academic excellence is based upon a challenging liberal arts curriculum taught by highly qualified, dedicated teachers. Intellectual growth is cultivated through a noteworthy breadth of advanced and honors course offerings.

  • Meaningful, Balanced Structure

The Hill School provides meaningful, balanced structure in a supportive atmosphere where shared community expectations sharpen each student’s focus, promote personal responsibility, build self-confidence, and form the foundation for future achievement. Students’ leadership and time management skills are further developed through high-caliber extracurricular options.

  • Principles

The Hill School values and nurtures principles of honesty and genuineness, courtesy and respect, and gratitude and concern for the greater good. At The Hill, character is not so much taught as subtly lived, as represented in the School's revered motto, "Whatsoever things are true.”

  • History and Tradition

The Hill School is proud of its history and traditions, unique 160-year-old threads that connect the quality of Hill's past with the vigor and excellence of its future.[5]

Academics[edit]

The Hill School’s renowned rigorous curriculum is founded firmly on the classical and Judeo-Christian traditions that value refinement of thought and fortification of character to liberate and charge the individual with responsibility to the common good. Of primary importance is the value of the strengths taught by the liberal arts and sciences: thinking critically, writing effectively, speaking forcefully, and solving problems analytically. The challenging curriculum provided to Hill’s 503 students emphasizes critical thinking and writing and offers 53 Advanced Placement courses as well as an array of honors classes and independent studies.

The academic year is divided into trimesters lasting 10 weeks each. Classes are held six days a week, including Saturday morning. Student-teacher ratio is 7-1 and typical class size is 13-15 students.

All Hill students (day and boarding) are required to own a laptop. Boarding students are required to participate in a nightly study hall (7:45 to 9:45 p.m) which ensures a quiet productive study environment.

One of the hallmarks of The Hill School academic program is the star-studded Classics Department, which currently employs three PhD holders to teach interested students the languages of Latin and Ancient Greek. The highly successful Classics Department has matriculated many students into numerous elite universities, such as Henry Spelman '06, who was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 2009 during his senior year as a Moorhead Scholar at the UNC-Chapel Hill to study at the University of Oxford in England, where he is now pursuing a graduate degree in the Classics.[6]

Athletics[edit]

The Hill competes in the Mid-Atlantic Prep League. The Hill's athletic teams are known as the Blues, and a ram serves as a mascot. The Hill's arch-rival is The Lawrenceville School of Lawrenceville, New Jersey. The rivalry is celebrated annually on the first or second weekend of November. The festivities alternate between the two schools each year, and it is the 5th oldest school rivalry, and the 3rd oldest high-school rivalry, in the nation, dating back to 1887.[7] In 2006 the Hill-Lawrenceville rivalry entered into a new era as a combined Hillville soccer team traveled to England and Scotland to compete against Charterhouse School and Eton College defeating both schools on their home pitch.

Besides Hill and Lawrenceville, other schools in the league are Hun School of Princeton in Princeton, New Jersey, Mercersburg Academy of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, Peddie School in Hightstown, New Jersey, and Blair Academy in Blairstown, New Jersey.

Some of the schools that The Hill also competes against include St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, The Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, Governor Dummer Academy in Byfield, Mass; Westminster School in Simsbury, Connecticut, and Wyoming Seminary College Prep, in Kingston, Pa.

All students are required to participate at some level of athletics, whether it be at the varsity or intramural level. Interscholastic sports include cross country, football, field hockey, soccer, tennis, squash, water polo, swimming, basketball, ice hockey, wrestling, baseball, softball, lacrosse, track, and golf.

Some team highlights include the 2010 girls water polo Eastern Champions and the 2009 football MAPL champions. Also, Varsity girls field hockey has won repeated MAPL titles. The Girl soccer team has won repeated MAPL and PAISSA titles, as well.

Due to alumnus Harry Elkins Widener's drowning on the RMS Titanic, all students must pass a swim test in order to graduate.

Notable alumni[edit]

Years not listed[edit]

Headmasters[edit]

  • Zachary G. Lehman, 2012-
  • David R. Dougherty, 1993–2012
  • Charles C. Watson, 1973–1993
  • Archibald R. Montgomery, 1968–1973
  • Edward (Ned) T. Hall, 1952–1968
  • James Wendell, 1928–1952
  • Boyd Edwards, 1922–1928
  • Dwight R. Meigs, 1914–1922
  • Alfred G. Rolfe, 1911–1914
  • John Meigs, 1876–1911
  • Matthew Meigs, 1851–1876

Teachers[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ http://www.thehill.org/HillSchoolFAQs
  2. ^ "Description". The Hill School Facebook Page. Retrieved 5 February 2013. 
  3. ^ "Hill School FAQs". Retrieved 5 February 2013. "As of June 2011, The Hill School's endowment was approximately $120.3 million." 
  4. ^ "Early History". Retrieved 5 February 2013. 
  5. ^ "The five tenents of The Hill School". Retrieved 8 February 2013. 
  6. ^ "Hill alumnus selected as one of 32 Rhodes Scholars". Retrieved 19 August 2012. 
  7. ^ Ross, Rosemarie. "Hill ends season with key victory", Mercury (Pennsylvania), November 13, 2005. Accessed October 31, 2007. "In the game that annually means the most to them, it was near total Blues dominance as visiting Hill routed arch rival Lawrenceville, 41-18, Saturday to take home the silver trophy bowl for the second straight year. This was their 103rd showdown in a rivalry that started in 1887."
  8. ^ JOHN BACKUS: a restless inventor, accessed December 24, 2006
  9. ^ James A. Baker, 3rd, Current Biography, March 2007. Accessed December 25, 2007. "Like his father, Jim Baker, as he prefers to be known, attended the Hill School, a college prep school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, then enrolled at Princeton University."
  10. ^ Clare O'Connor (2012-02-08). "The Mystery Monk Making Billions With 5-Hour Energy". Forbes magazine. 
  11. ^ Martin, Douglas. "Henry S. Coleman, 79, Dies; Hostage at Columbia in '68", The New York Times, February 4, 2006. Accessed September 12, 2009.
  12. ^ Glan, Latshering. "Interview with American Author Patrick Maher". Retrieved 1 March 2013. 
  13. ^ Severo, Richard. "William Proxmire, Maverick Democratic Senator From Wisconsin, Is Dead at 90", The New York Times, December 16, 2005. Accessed October 31, 2007. "The family was well-to-do, and he was sent to the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa., and then to Yale, where he was an English major."
  14. ^ http://www.myspace.com/thedavidstein

External links[edit]
Colleges and Universities
Public school districts
Private secondary schools
Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Schools
Main School Districts
Map of Montgomery County Pennsylvania School Districts.png
  • (Does not operate any schools)
Other Schools
Boyertown Area (partially located in Berks County)
Souderton Area (partially located in Bucks County)
Spring-Ford Area (partially located in Chester County)
Upper Perkiomen (partially located in Bucks County)

Coordinates: 40°14′42″N 75°37′59″W / 40.2449°N 75.6331°W / 40.2449; -75.6331

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